passion fruit + lemon syrup cake

My mag of choice when on the train home is now BBC Good Food. I think that means I’m a proper grown-up now. Gone are the days where I devoured the celeb gossip of Hello! and the fashion of Grazia… now it’s pretty pictures of food that keep me entertained on the journey north 😛

The March issue informed me that the fruit and veg currently in season are: leeks, lemons, blood oranges, parsnips, rhubarb and passion fruit, among other things. I don’t know exactly where in the world the passion fruit are in season (something tells me it’s not likely to be in Yorkshire) but I’ve wanted to bake with them for a while and this seemed like the perfect sign.

I had my glamorous assistant with me for the Easter weekend (the boyf), who greatly sped up the baking and the eating. Now that he’s returned to work, I have to as well – to the joy that is dissertation no.2! I’ve spent several hours today teaching myself how to use Adobe® Illustrator in order to make a diagram about all the environmental influences on flowering… so now it’s time to do something a bit more chill 🌺

If I was going to make this again, I’d buy more passion fruit. The flavour sort of comes through, but is totally dominated by the lemon (not that that’s a bad thing). I don’t really mind the crunch of the odd seed in there, but it may not be for everyone; with a few more fruit you could get a substantial amount of juice and strain the seeds out. Up to you!

Lemon syrup:

Method:

Zest the lemon and scoop out the innards of the passion fruit, separating the seeds from the pulp if you want to. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest with electric beaters until pale and fluffy. Slowly add the eggs and beat well.

Fold in the sifted flour, milk/lemon juice and passion fruit pulp in three additions, alternating between each one and mixing gently with a spatula.

Pour the batter into the tin, and bake for around 1 hour.

As the cake is baking, heat the sugar, lemon juice and water in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes or so, until clear and syrupy.

When the cake is out, poke a few holes in it and then drizzle the syrup over the top. Slice into little squares to serve.

Hope you had a lovely Easter weekend!

Also, random PSA: I gave blood for the first time a couple of days ago. If you’re able to donate, get on it! I got free biscuits and the lovely feeling that my pint of the red stuff will go on to help three people, and from a biological interest point of view, I found out my blood type which is pretty cool!